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cials and Members of Congress, and I was really happy to see the 

 favorable response that we got from everyone that we met with. 



The Chairman. Did you come over on the Senate side? 



Mr. Jemewouk. Yes, we did. 



The Chairman. Good. 



Mr. Jemewouk. And we plan to, you know, make another trip 

 very soon in the future before the reauthorization of the Magnuson 

 Act. 



The CDQ program has been very effective and that is why we are 

 asking that the — that you, Senator, consider probably making it as 

 a permanent part of the Magnuson Act. It is a real tool that has 

 helped us provide economic development and also opportunity, you 

 know, for work that we never had access to. 



We also would like to probably see the CDQ program be ex- 

 panded on into other fisheries, more species than pollock. As you 

 know, that when you rely on one species, there is ups and downs 

 within that one species that really have economic impacts that 

 takes years and years to recover from, so we would like to probably 

 expand into other species, halibut, cod, crab. 



The CDQ program, however, would do us no good if we have no 

 fish. That is why we attach very special importance to conserva- 

 tion. You have heard the three gentlemen before me talk of con- 

 servation. We were concerned about conservation before the 200- 

 mile limit was enacted and that we — and we have been here for 

 over years and that is the reason we rely on conservation. We rely 

 on different species of sea mammals, we rely on fisheries, you 

 know, we rely on the whole ecosystem being healthy, and that is 

 the reason we put special importance on conservation. 



My corporation that was formed under the CDQ program has a 

 bycatch control committee, and we look at the CDQ program as a 

 management tool that the council can use to probably monitor 

 bycatch controls, monitor the fishing activities. Just these past few 

 fishing excursions that we went on, we were the managers and 

 whenever we got into bycatch control — or bycatch problems, we 

 asked our partners to move to another location and they complied 

 with our requests, so it is something that 



The Chairman. They moved aside voluntarily? 



Mr. Jemewouk. It was voluntarily on our part to put into our 

 program a bycatch control program, and the direction that we give 

 the fishing partner they comply with. We have a very good rela- 

 tionship with the Glacier Fish Co., who is our fishing partner, and 

 they are very concerned also about conservation. 



As I explained to you, you know, we put this into a voluntary 

 program. We did put observers that we hired from the western — 

 some communities in western Alaska and place them on vessels 

 and they gave us reports, which proved very valuable in helping us 

 make those decisions. We want this program to be here for future 

 generations, Senator. 



We also recommend that this committee examine measures that 

 would give the fishery management councils more tools to deal 

 with bycatch in a more efficient and timely manner, protect the 

 ocean habitat, collect better scientific data, allow full consideration 

 of management factors in addition to management efficiency, and 

 curtail the administration roadblocks that often thwart conserva- 



